Yeast infections caused by birth control

[tinyblueoctopus.livejournal.com]

Okay, I have a lot of questions. But first, to pertain to my subject heading, has anyone noticed that one form of birth control causes more yeast infections than another? I've gotten two YIs fairly close together and I can't figure out what caused them to pop up, since I've never had one in almost 24 years. The only thing I can thing was a change in birth control from name brand to generic, but I've since switched back and still got this second YI. I was wondering if anyone knew of any hormonal birth control that didn't cause, or at least was less likely to cause YIs. (I have to be on hormonal birth control because of PCOS.)

Okay, and here's where the TMI comes in. I had a YI. Went to my doctor, tried about four different medicines before he finally had me come back, did a culture, and told me it went away. I still had some medicine left (MetroGel), so I kept it in case it came back or I got another. Low and behold I did, so I've used it again. But four days later the uncomfortable peeing and itching symptoms have subsided, but lumpy discharge still abounds. Is it safe to assume I've still got it until ALL the symptoms go away? In the event that I do, I'm using garlic cloves to keep a treatment going. I figured a home remedy wouldn't be too harsh to continue. I'm also taking acidophilus pills once a day since I can't force myself to eat that much yogurt. Is this over kill? I've had this thing for a week and a half now. I just want it to go away.

I've read that boric acid is good for persistent YIs, but I've used it diluted in water as a rinse and I swear it made things worse. I don't know where to buy the 00 capsules I've also read you can use, but I'm afraid it's going to make my vagina disintegrate.

And one last observation. I've noticed that both times I've gotten YIs, the gross discharge started out thick like mucus and yellow. But when I start medicating, it turns into the typical lumpy cottage cheese. Anyone else experience this phenomena? I have a strange vagina...

Thanks for any advice you can offer.

Comments

[tinyblueoctopus.livejournal.com]

I've just read in the list of many causes of yeast infections that hormonal birth control can be one of them. I mean, I've been on it for years and it only recently started getting YIs, so I'm not even completely sure it's the culprit. I'm gonna ask my doc about that one.

Thanks. I really should see my doctor again, but my health insurance hates covering anything and everything so I was hoping I could get rid of it myself. Ah well.

[jennifer0246.livejournal.com]

have you seen VP's big YI post? it's linked on the sidebar.

[jennifer0246.livejournal.com]

hormonal birth control can be a contributing factor, but there're no brands that are conclusively linked to YIs more than others (except nuvaring, but that's more because it's inserted locally, and women sometimes don't have the cleanest hands, etc).

Having one YI can increase your chances for getting another in quick succession, because your vaginal environment is already thrown out of whack.

MetroGel is an antibiotic gel used to treat bacterial vaginosis, not yeast infections. If you've been using metrogel, I would certainly implicate that in your tough-to-beat YI: it's likely causing it! Are you certain what you had was yeast and not BV? I'd recommend calling your doctor back and seeing what the story is, and getting a conclusive recommendation about treatment.

Garlic and acidophilus are helpful, not hurtful; acidophilus is much more effective inserted vaginally rather than orally, if you can manage that.

[tinyblueoctopus.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was reading about BVs and I found out MetroGel's a common treatment. I have a feeling my doc prescribed it when I couldn't get rid of my YI because, maybe it wasn't a YI after all... My symptoms did go away, so I'm wondering if that's what it was because symptoms of BV and YIs can be very similar. I think I'm gonna go to my doc have have him test me for a couple different things to see if I can get a definite answer.

Is it okay to insert acidophilus pills? It wouldn't bother me any, but I dunno if they'd dissolve or anything. I'm not too keen on using yogurt. Seems a little messy...

Thanks for the help!

[jennifer0246.livejournal.com]

that sounds like the best plan, your doc should be a good resource for this.

it's totally fine to insert acidophilus; sometimes you can find the special ones that are "easy dissolve" or whatever, but anything'll work better than nothing. :)